Looking Too Closely
by Dance Me Into the Night
Summary: Such little things in the background that no one notices them. But me. I take all the little things I see and make them into stories! Not nearly as silly as it may sound. Please read and review!


**Hi peoples! I probably shouldn't be starting new stories till I finish the ones I already started, but if I don't type it now I'll forget. I do that a lot. This chapter is a cross-over between Danny Phantom(obviously)and A Series of Unfortunate Events.**

**Looking to closely at: In Bitter Reunions, on Danny's bed and in Vlad's library there are decorations of eyes. So, this chapter is about when he was in V.F.D. because I'm odd that way. Enjoy!**

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Two teenage figures climbed out of a long, vertical passageway and into a small curved hallway. They were both wearing multiple layers of coats, as it was very cold on top of the Mortmain Mountains. Both of them were also wearing masks, to keep the snow gnats away, but since they were this far they really didn't need them anymore.

"Which passage do we take?" asked Harriet Chin, taking off her mask and putting it in one of her coats large pockets. "I don't remember."

"The one on the right." Replied Vlad Masters, also removing his mask and putting it in a pocket. "The other one leads to where they keep supplies."

"Okay. Just making sure." They adjusted their backpacks, which were feeling very heavy after the long climb up the Vertical Flame Diversion, and headed down the passageway. After what seemed like hours of walking, even though it was only a few minutes, they came to a door with what looked like a huge spider where the doorknob should have been. When they got closer though, they saw that the legs of the spider where just curly wires spreading out in all directions, and where the spiders head should have been, there was a small keyboard.

"Do you have your commonplace book with you?" asked Vlad. Harriet nodded and took her backpack off. She looked through it for a moment, then pulled out a dark blue notebook. She flipped to a page that was marked with a pencil.

"The first code is the name of the person most known for discovering gravity." She looked up at Vlad as he began typing in 'Sir Isaac Newton'. There was a small clicking sound, like the device was warming up.

"What's the next one?" he asked. She looked at her book again.

"The Latin name for Volunteer Feline Detectives. I looked it up before we left. It's panthera leo." Vlad nodded and typed in the code. There was a buzzing sound and the wires began to shake a little.

"Good." Said Vlad smiling. "What's the last one?" Harriet looked back on the page.

"The central theme of Leo Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina'." She sighed. "I haven't read it yet though."

"My mom made me read it over the summer. And she went through the trouble of explaining it to me. It has a very long central theme." He turned back to the device and began typing it in, saying it out loud to himself as he typed. "A rural life of moral simplicity, despite it's monotony, is the preferable personal narrative to a daring life of impulsive passion, which only leads to tragedy."

"Wow, that is a long central theme." Said Harriet looking up at the door. The wires on the door began to curl and uncurl very quickly, then the door itself seemed to shake for a moment, before finally opening. The teens walked through it and it closed behind them. They turned to look back at it for a moment, but it was so well hidden that they could hardly tell there had been a door there at all.

They turned away from the door to see many people sitting at tables talking, eating what looked to be soup of some sort. The room was a huge kitchen, with a large window looking out onto a large and beautiful waterfall. Though since it was winter, the waterfall was frozen, and it was more of a huge, shiny, white wall. Two people were near the window, one boiling water for tea, another helping dish out the soup to the people around the tables. A few people looked up at Vlad and Harriet and waved, then went back to talking.

"There's Emma's dad." Said Harriet. They walked past three tables and reached the one where a tall man with black hair was sitting. "Hi Mr. Evans." She said from behind him. He turned to face them.

"Hello Harry, hello Vlad. How are you?" he asked with a smile. He was always so cheerful, and everyone who knew him was used to it.

"We're fine, thank you." Said Vlad. "Where's Emma?" he asked looking around.

"She's in her room. I'm sure she'd be happy to see you."

"Okay, thanks!" said Harriet, heading for the door on the other side of the room. Vlad followed, and Mr. Evans went back to talking quietly with his friends.

Vlad and Harriet walked down two hallways, went up a flight of stairs, past several rooms, and finally found the plain blue door with the number 224 painted on it in gold letters above the V.F.D. eye insignia. Harriet knocked a few times.

"Friend or foe?" came Emma's voice from inside. They both rolled their eyes. She'd been doing this for a while now, being extra careful. Vlad and Harriet didn't think she needed to be so cautious, but she was anyway.

"Emma, it's us, Vlad and Harry. Open the door." There was silence from inside.

Vlad sighed. "Friend." He said in an annoyed tone.

"Password?" asked Emma. Harriet nearly turned and walked away in frustration, but Vlad told her to let it go. Like her father's cheeriness, they'd just have to get used to this overly-cautious Emma.

"The world is quiet here." Said Vlad. Finally the door opened and they stepped inside. Emma shut the door behind them quickly as if she was afraid someone had been following them.

"Came through the Vernacularly Fastened Door?" She asked them, noticing how many coats they had as they removed them. Harriet nodded, and turned to look at Emma. She was wearing her usual black sweater, dark jeans, and navy blue sneakers. Her long brown hair was down, and she had her black headband on to keep it out of her face.

"Why don't you ever wear any bright colors?" asked Harriet who was wearing a bright green shirt herself.

"I don't want to stand out. You never know who could be out there, or if they're on your side or not." Said Emma looking around like she expected someone to pop up out of nowhere.

"Emma, why are you so paranoid?" asked Vlad, sitting down on her bed.

"Haven't you heard about the schism?" she asked them. They shook their heads. "You should have! Some of our members are converting. There have been fires set by our own, and even the eagles have been taken away."

"Why?" asked Harriet. "Why would they do that?"

"I don't know, but I heard my dad talking about some big secret. Something about a sugar bowl." She looked at them urgently, and they both burst into laughter.

"What would be so important about a sugar bowl?" asked Vlad. Emma looked at them like she was about to burst into tears, and they stopped laughing.

"I don't know. My dad won't tell me, but I know it's important. But you can't tell anyone! I'm not even supposed to know." She sat down on the chair next to her desk. The desk was littered with many papers, some with notes on them, others with what looked like maps and calculations on them. One map, labeled 'Mortmain Mountains', had a small brown stain on it. To anyone else, it looked like Emma had spilled tea or something on it, but everyone in V.F.D. knew it marked the location of the headquarters.

"Okay, we won't tell." Said Harriet. Just then, someone knocked on the door. Emma jumped up and put her ear to the door.

"Friend or foe?" she asked.

"Friend! Aye!" came a familiar voice from outside the door.

"Password?" asked Emma, even though she already knew who it was.

"Aye! The world is quiet here!" Emma opened the door and an enormous man came through the door.

"Good, all three of you are here! Aye! Hello! Howdy! How are you! Aye!" said Captain Widdershins. He was wearing a shiny suit made of a slippery looking material, and boots that looked just as slippery. On his suit was a picture of a man with a beard, they all knew to be Herman Melville. Captain Widdershins himself, had no beard, but a mustache that curled up like parenthesis.

"Hello Captain Widdershins." Said Harriet, looking at his suit. "Are you getting ready to board the Queequeg already?"

"Aye! We've got it all tested and now I've got my own submarine to captain! Aye! It'll be great! Aye! It'll be an interesting adventure! Aye! It'll be the only way to stay underwater so long! Aye!"

"Is little Fernald going with you?" asked Emma. The captain smiled.

"Of course he's coming! Aye! I've got to train him! Aye! I've got to show him how to work everything! Aye!" He said enthusiastically. He always spoke so loudly, and repeated 'aye' a lot. Just another thing that they were used to by now.

"So, where are you going?" asked Vlad. Captain Widdershins looked like he was about to say something, but someone else knocked on the door. He ran over to the door before Emma could even get up, and opened it. Mr. Evans stepped inside and looked at his daughter who looked appalled that Captain Widdershins hadn't asked 'friend or foe' first.

"All of you need to come with me." He said urgently. They all almost fell over. For the first time in their memory, he didn't sound the least bit cheery. They got up as fast as they could, grabbed their backpacks and followed Mr. Evans out the door and down the hall.

"Dad, where are we going?" asked Emma, stuffing her commonplace book in her backpack as she walked. She looked scared and her dad was rushing down the hall.

"I can't tell you now, but we have to move. Harry, Vlad, when we get down to the kitchen find your parents." They nodded silently and continued walking.

"What do think is going on?" Vlad asked his friends in a whisper.

"I don't know, but it must be serious." Said Harriet.

"I bet it has something to do with the sugar bowl." Said Emma worriedly. They turned a corner and walked into the kitchen. The friends turned to each other with looks of terror on their faces. People were rushing around everywhere. The younger children were being ushered out through the Vernacularly Fastened Door by their parents, and the adults were shouting instructions. Captain Widdershins' voice boomed out over all the others.

"Aye! Hurry! Aye! But not too fast! Aye! But not too slowly either! Aye! He who hesitates is lost! Aye!"

The three friends looked at each other, then back at the mass of people moving this way and that, then back at each other.

"We should probably go find our parents like your dad said." Said Harriet. Emma nodded and gave her friends a sad look.

"Don't worry, we'll see each other soon." Said Vlad. Emma smiled and gave her two friends a hug, then turned back to her dad who was trying to shout over Captain Widdershins' rambling.

"Come on." Said Harriet. She and Vlad wandered through the crowd for a few minutes till they finally found their parents by the window.

"Good, you're here." Said Harriet's mom, who was wearing multiple coats. Harriet noticed that her dad, and Vlad's parents were wearing their coats too.

"Hurry and put your coats on." Said Vlad's dad. "You'll need them. Make sure you have your masks too."

They did as they were told, and soon they were walking back down the hallway towards the Vertical Flame Diversion. One by one, they all slid down the pole that was set in the middle of the passageway. When they got to the bottom, they exited the cave and split up. Harriet and her parents went one way, and Vlad and his went the other way.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Vlad asked. She shook her head.

"Nothing sweetie. I'm sure this is just a false alarm, but you can never be too careful." Vlad could tell she was hiding something, but didn't ask again.

"I'm sure we'll be back soon." Said Vlad's dad.

He was wrong. None of them ever saw the V.F.D. headquarters in the Mortmain Mountains again. And Vlad and Harriet never saw Emma again.

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Well? What did you think? I have a few others planned, but if you have any other little things like this you've noticed, or even any little mess ups in the episodes, tell me. I'd love to have some new ideas. Feel free to flame it though, you can hate it if you want. But please don't hate it!


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